A long, wet, windy stage 7 from Le Mans to Châteauroux ended with Mark Cavendish winning another bunch sprint, his 17th overall (!), but the big news was crashes which took out Bradley Wiggins and cost Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer big time. Alexander Vinokourov also hit the deck. It was one of those stages where you could say the Tour cannot be won, but it certainly can be lost. Tom Bonnen retired early on from injuries sustained in stage 6.